ten

Street, Dabba, and Dot had been close enough that Bob called them in. They were waiting for me in the men’s dorm.

I opened our meeting by saying, “Our kidnapper used a disguise. We’ve been looking for the wrong woman.” I passed around copies of the new sketches. “I’m pretty sure one of these is closer to her real appearance. Do any of them look familiar?”

“Not to me,” Dabba said. “I ain’t never seen her.”

“Is this the best you got?” Dot asked. “Lots of women can fit this picture. I don’t know.”

I turned my attention to Street, whose eyes appeared glued to the picture. “How about you? Have you ever seen her?”

“I can’t be sure,” he said. “Maybe she comes by my corner sometimes. Her hair’s like this one, but with streaks.” He held up the brunette version. “Light-colored streaks.”

“Think, Street, think,” I said. “A five-year-old’s life is at stake.”

“I don’t know. I never seen her without sunglasses. Everybody in Florida wears them. Can you put a pair on her?”

“Yeah,” Dot said. “It ain’t like these folks invite us to dinner.”

Dabba cackled. “That’s a good’un, Dot. I used to have folks come to dinner. That was before they took Linda. Ain’t done it since.”

There was an awkward silence, so I pulled out a fresh sketch of the brunette and some colored pencils I borrowed from Officer Germaine. With Street guiding me, I drew dark glasses over her eyes. My efforts at streaking her hair were unsuccessful until Bob found a yellow marker. After using that to add highlights, I asked, “Anything else?”

Street took the picture and walked over to one of the lamps. He held it under the bright light and studied it as if he were selecting lottery numbers. “Yep. I’m purty sure I seen somebody looks a lot like this driving on route four-forty-one.”

“That’s good. Can you remember what kind of car she was in?”

“Give me a minute,” Street said. He plopped down on a bunk.

“Take all the time you need.” I turned to the rest of the group. “Let’s go into the bar and have a glass of water or something. Give Street some privacy.”

Street joined us a few minutes later. “White Lexus, an old one. That’s all I remember.”

Great. About every third car in South Florida was white, and a lot of those were Lexuses—or so it seemed. I couldn’t let Street see my frustration though. “That’s more than we had before. Maybe she’ll take the same route again, and someone will spot her. If so, we need a license number.” As I spoke, I busied myself adding highlights to several of the other copies of the brunette sketch.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw each of them nodding as they looked at one another, however, no one had anything to add. After a moment, Bob said, “There’s still some daylight. Let’s spread out and see if we spot anything. Does everyone have pictures?”

More nodding followed his question, then Street, Dot, and Dabba left.

Bob said, “If others come in, I’ll brief them. You’re welcome to hang around if you like.”

“No. I need to move on. There are some places I want to hit before
it gets too dark. I’ll leave extra copies of the sketches.”

_____

In the next three hours, I hit six Publix Super Markets and wandered through eight strip malls. The only thing I learned was my sketch didn’t help much. With a little imagination, it fit about every fourth woman I encountered.

At eight-fifteen, my cell phone chirped. Caller ID sent a chill down my spine. Mom. I’d completely forgotten she was coming in.

“Hi, Mom. Did you get in okay? How was the flight?”

“The flight was fine, and I made it to your house without mishap.” Her words carried an edge to them—meaning I should have met her at the airport or at least called to verify she landed.

“Sorry I didn’t check in with you,” I said in what I hoped was an apologetic tone, “but I’ve been busier than a horsefly in a herd of mares today. I have this case—”

“That’s all right, my dear. I know you must give priority to your work.”

Ouch. That meant I’d pay later. “It’s not that, Mom. It’s just I’ve been dashing from place to—”

“I said it was okay. I’m at your house now, and I found things to keep me busy. If you can tell me when you might get home, I’ll try to be through cleaning by then. Didn’t you say you cleaned the refrigerator recently?”

Double-ouch. I had really stepped into it now. It would take a lot to dig myself out of this one, so I decided to stall. “Uh, how did you get in?”

Mom chuckled. “I know my daughter. I simply looked for a fake rock in the flower bed. Found one just like mine. Popped it open and there was the key.”

I was not doing well. I’d forgotten that I bought my fake rock at the same time Mom got hers—many years ago in Texas. Time to take the leap, though. “I’m not real sure when I’ll get there. I still have several leads to pursue. There’s food—”

“You need not worry. I picked up something on the drive from the airport. I know how busy you are. You just follow your leads, and I’ll have dinner with the news. You do get CNN, don’t you?”

That was the clincher. She never watched CNN. Said it was too liberal for her Texas roots. “Okay, Mom. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Make yourself comfortable. And don’t clean up. I’ll take care of it.” It wouldn’t have done any good to tell her I thought the place was spotless when I left that morning. If she said it needed cleaning, it needed cleaning. “I have to run now. One of my contacts just showed up. Kisses.” I punched the off button with a sigh, wondering if all mothers were like mine, or if I just got lucky.

Before I could feel too sorry for myself, the phone rang again. This time, caller ID told me it was Hammonds’ number.

“Beth, here.”

“Ms. Bowman. This is Detective Bannon. We have an email. Mr. Hammonds requested I let you know.”

“I’m on the way. I’ll be there in less than thirty minutes.”

_____

I hit Hammonds’ house in twenty minutes and made my entry through the garage. I still wasn’t up to facing the foyer. Inside, I found Hammonds in his office with Sargent and Bannon.

“So, what does the email say?” I asked after settling into a chair.

“Give her a copy,” Hammonds snapped. “I told you she gets everything.”

“I printed a copy for her,” Sargent answered, his face red.

It was obvious the pressure was getting to Hammonds, and he was getting under Sargent’s skin. And, while I had no love, or even respect, for Sargent, I thought Hammonds was being a bit heavy-handed. Sargent might be a horse’s ass, but he was doing his job.

“Thanks, Sargent,” I said, standing and reaching for the paper before Hammonds did. If I could keep peace between the two of them, life would be easier for everyone.

Sargent handed the copy to me, then turned and left the room. His stride was angry, his heels hitting the floor with force. When he closed the door, it didn’t slam, but it had a definite slap to it.

I read aloud, “Three a.m. Instructions in center circle of soccer field at Royal Springs and Wiles.” I looked at Hammonds.

“Not much to go on, is there?” he said. “What do you think?”

I studied the message. “It’s from someone called IWantMine at Yahoo.com. I’m betting when the police track it, they’ll come up with phony identifying info. But we expected that, didn’t we?” I paused. John’s eyes had locked on the paper I held. “Looks like I have an early morning date in Coral Lakes.” I handed the paper to John and picked up my purse.

“Wait, Ms. Bowman,” Bannon said. “We need to lay out a plan. You’ll need police backup. We’ll need to get the place staked out early. Maybe we can grab someone and sweat him.”

I looked from Bannon to Hammonds. “No. This is their first contact. I’m betting they’ll have someone nearby with an open phone watching the pickup to make sure we’re playing by the rules. If they see anyone extra …” I let my voice die off, not wanting to complete the sentence. The last thing I wanted to say was they might take it out on Ashley.

“You’re not being smart,” Bannon said. “We have a chance at them.”

“This is why Mr. Hammonds hired me. You stay here in case they call or send another email. I’ll need to know.” I hesitated while taking a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Look. I say we play it exactly how they say. I’ll be back as fast as I can. At least, we’ll know what they want and how they want it.”

Hammonds said, “Beth … be careful. Take it as slow and easy as you need to. Whatever it takes to bring Ashley home.”

I left the room with John’s eyes boring into me. I’m not sure which they carried more of, hope or fear. And I’m not sure which my heart carried more of, fear or hope. There were only a couple of logical scenarios. I was either walking into a trap, or the instructions were there. The first was illogical, but killing Sabrina wasn’t the most logical thing they could have done either.

As soon as I stepped out of the house, I flipped open my cell phone and punched in Bob’s number. He answered on the first ring.

“Bob, I have a date at the soccer field on the corner of Royal Springs Drive and Wiles Road. If you have anyone in the area, I could sure use an extra pair of eyes.”

“What’s going down?”

“They emailed and said they’ll have instructions in the center circle of the soccer field at three a.m. I’ll pick them up, then head back to Hammonds’ house. Until then, I’m going home to try to make peace with my mother. She came in today and is not happy I wasn’t there to greet her.”

Bob said, “I’ll see if anyone is close enough to the intersection to help. Be careful.”

“Careful is my middle name—Beth Careful Bowman.”

“What was that about your mother?”

I gave him the nickel version of her arrival and the reason for it. “Not only was I not home when she arrived, but she says my house is filthy and threatened to clean it.”

“Sounds like you’re caught in a lose-lose situation.”

“You nailed it. At this moment, I’m her least favorite daughter, and she has no others.”

Bob chuckled. “Don’t expect any help from me. I’d rather step between a lioness and her cub than get caught between a mother and daughter. If you run fast enough, the lioness will give up and go back to her little one. You can’t run fast enough to escape a vengeful mother.”

“Yeah, I know. My mother has been outrunning me my whole life.”

“So, what now?”

“Grocery stores. There are several between here and my house. You know, a Publix on almost every corner. Maybe our kidnapper likes to shop at night. I’ll stop in before heading home to face Mom. That’ll lend truth to my white lie. I told her I had leads to follow.”

Bob tsked me. “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. Sir Walter Scott’s famous words.”

“Yeah. His and my mother’s. It’s her mantra. I’m out of here.”

I clicked the cell closed, climbed into the car, and backed out of the driveway, heading for Publix, then home. With luck, I would spot the woman, square things with Mom, and get a couple of hours sleep. And Jiminy Cricket would land on my shoulder to provide me with guidance. Yeah, right.

Driving in the general direction of my house, I stopped at four more Publixes. No luck.

I was tired, frustrated, and nervous about going home. By now, I figured Mom would have herself worked into a real mad. If only I could stay out until she was asleep, I could avoid her until the morning.

I checked my watch again. Eleven o’clock. Bob hadn’t called so his people must have come up empty, and he must not have located a backup for me. Nothing left to do but go home and face Mom.

When I pulled into my driveway, I noticed a couple of things. The first was a red Chrysler convertible. It looked like Mom was planning a fun holiday. Or maybe she was entering her second childhood. I parked my Toyota Camry beside the Chrysler.

The second thing I noticed was the house was dark. I sighed in relief. I wouldn’t have to face the music tonight.